James Nodgren and the colonel stepped out into the corridor and shut the door to Jon Graeme’s office behind them. The screaming alarm was even more deafening in the hallway. “What the hell’s going on?” the colonel shouted at the MP standing guard outside Jon Graeme’s office.
Before the MP could answer, the alarm went silent and all the lights in the building winked off.
“What the fuck!” the colonel shouted.
Nodgren blinked his eyes and tried to adjust to the darkness, but it was all-consuming. After a moment the MP who had been standing guard turned on his flashlight. The three men outside Jon Graeme’s office became visible to one another.
“I think we’d better get back inside and secure the prisoner,” said the colonel.
“Right,” Nodgren nodded immediately.
The colonel turned to the MP. “Give me your flashlight.”
As soon as they entered the office, the colonel pointed the beam of the flashlight at the corner of the office. Jon Graeme’s chair was still there but he was gone.
“He’s not here,” the first MP said. “He just disappeared.”
“Look under the desk,” Nodgren shouted.
The two MPs checked the space beneath the desk but found nothing there.
Nodgren’s cellphone whirred. Its electronic signal seemed abnormally loud in the silence of the office. Nodgren pulled it from his pocket, opened it up and held it to his ear.
“Yes, Sir,” he said into the phone and then thumbed it off.
“We’ve been ordered to evacuate the building by Command,” he said in a loud voice to everyone present.
After they left the building they found themselves among several hundred others who had also been evacuated. Nodgren and the colonel made their way quickly to the Mobile Command Center about fifty yards from the building. Its rear door swung open and General Rockaway stepped out.
“Who the hell gave the order to evacuate?” he shouted.
“No one in our group,” said the Director of the NSA contingent.
“Look!” Nodgren called out as he pointed toward Building C.
The building was blurred about its edges. An odd mist had settled around it and its upper stories were engulfed in a shimmering fog. Within seconds the building began to fade away, as though it were made of sugar and water was being poured over the top. It collapsed in on itself in slow motion, but with none of the destructive consequences of demolition. It seemed as though its very molecules were being disassembled and sucked away.
Five minutes later, Building C was completely gone. Even its foundations had vanished. All that was left was an immense hole in the ground. The crowd of people who had stood and watched was silent, their faces pale with slack-jawed disbelief. All were shaken by what they had witnessed.
General Rockaway took his cellphone out of his pocket and held it in his shaking hand before holding it to his ear. “Get me a secure line,” he barked. “And get me through to the president, priority alpha alpha alpha one.”
The cellphone tight against his ear, General Rockaway stepped back into the Mobile Command Center. The doors slammed shut behind him.